György Csóti, the acting President of the Hungarian Atlantic Council (MAT) and Zsolt Rábai, participated in the general assembly of the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA).
The event was originally to be held in spring 2020 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The General Assembly took place online and lasted for approximately 3,5 hours. The representatives from member organisations evaluated the recent ATA activities, discussed the achievements, as well as the state of operational costs and expenditures. Last but not least, the members have also elected the new executives of ATA. Based on the proposal of the German chapter, a smaller caretaker team was elected for a transitional period.
The Acting President of MAT supported the proposal of his German colleague, Christian Schmidt. The members of ATA elected Jim Townsend (USA) as ATA President, while Werner Fasslabend (Austria), Krista Mulenok (Estonia), Alex Serban (Romania) will serve as Vice Presidents. Monika Begovic (Croatia) was elected Secretary General of the organization, and Johannes Kahrs (Germany) will act as ATA’s Treasurer. The mandate of the new ATA board lasts until the end of the first quarter of 2021, and the main task of the new executive team will be to stabilise the financial position of the organisation and to draft a new statute.
Translated by Artúr Hőnich